Mads Mikkelsen is NBC’s Hannibal the Cannibal

Bryan Fuller and NBC have found their genius serial killer in newly minted “Thor 2″ villain Mads Mikkelsen, formerly of Bond villain fame. (Standard Hollywood: the “foreigner” always has to pay his dues as a bad guy first before they’ll let him play any other part.)

Mads Mikkelsen will make his American TV debut as the co-lead of NBC’s “Hannibal”, the Bryan Fuller-developed/run TV series based on the Hannibal The Cannibal character originated by novelist Thomas Harris in his series of thriller novels. The books, of course, were famously adapted into movies starring Anthony Hopkins as the character in “Silence of the Lambs”, “Red Dragon”, and most recently, “Hannibal”.

In “Hannibal”, genius criminal Hannibal Lecter aids the FBI and Special Agent Will Graham (to be played by Hugh Dancy) to solve crimes. Graham is a brilliant FBI profiler himself, and no doubt he’ll begin to suspect that his buddy Hannibal may be more than he seems and is harboring a much, much darker side than he’s letting on.

Fuller has already promised that the “crimes of the week” nature of the show will only last for a season, before Hannibal’s darker instincts take root, eventually pitting the two men against each other.

“Hannibal” is the second TV show to mine the Thomas Harris book, with the Lifetime Channel working on their own version called “Clarice”, except that show will focus on the female FBI agent who Hannibal later becomes infatuated with.